Traditions

I love General Conference weekend!

And wasn't conference especially beautiful this time?  I always think that.

I love the feeling that permeates our family during this weekend as the voices of the prophets sound through our home.  Katelee even stopped putting together her puzzles just to watch for awhile, and to point out President Monson to us.

Since we have General Conference every six months, it is a great time for a few family traditions.  One of our favorites is a special breakfast on Saturday morning before the first session begins.  At spring general conference we eat homemade cinnamon rolls with maple frosting.  Yummmmm...  I tried a new recipe, and we each groaned with pleasure as we took our first bites.  Katelee insisted that the rolls were 'donuts' and ate hers as fast as she could!  (In the fall we make homemade pumpkin waffles with creamy syrup.)

If you want the recipe for these awesome cinnamon rolls, click here.

Saturday evening we usually get together with the Reynolds side of the family.  We had a delicious pot-luck dinner.  Then the men went off to the priesthood session of conference while the kids played in grandma's fun toy attic and the women chatted and laughed.  Sorry, no pictures, I forgot to take my camera!

Sunday between conference sessions we have another family tradition.  We take out our 72-hour kits and go through the food.  Anything that is going to expire before the next conference we take out and eat as an indoor picnic lunch.  Katelee especially enjoys this, considering that most of the food in our 72-hour kits consists of food that we don't eat on a regular basis.  Today the food that was going to expire soon included fruit cups, granola bars, Capri Suns, mini cereal boxes and fruit snacks - all items we don't usually have around the house, and definitely not the things she usually gets to eat for lunch!  Tomorrow night for FHE we'll replace the things we took out of our kits with new food.

Here's the stash:

We also enjoy listening to the special documentaries or programs on TV between the Sunday sessions.  Today's documentary about the life of President Thomas S. Monson had Gerald and I both in tears.

Now that conference is over, my mind is still swirling with thoughts of temples, provident living, respect, scripture study, entitlement, home making, missionary work, faith, courage during trials, reverence, and most especially the testimonies borne of the Savior Jesus Christ. 

The beauty of conference, though, is that even though I feel saturated with new ideas and thoughts and spiritual promptings on how to be better, I don't feel overwhelmed.  Instead I feel more hopeful, more motivated, and more dedicated to becoming a little bit better before the next conference weekend.